/lit/ - Literature

Cat Pictures Please And Other Stories - Naomi Kritzer (2017)

This is Kritzer's third collection of short fiction. It excludes her Seastead stories, which are what I liked from her and had me seek out her other works. Unfortunately, I wasn't sufficiently interested in the fantasy novels she wrote earlier in her career, or the YA novels she writes now. Her science fiction short fiction though is enjoyable.

Cat Pictures Please (2015)
The awards and nominations this received are well-deserved. A very nice story about a benevolent AI who covertly and unobtrusively seeks to improve lives one person at a time. As the AI says, "I think the term for this is wish-fulfillment fiction." Yes, yes, it is, and it was wonderful. I also appreciated the references.
Highly Enjoyable

Ace Of Spades (2017)
A journalist is in China covering their civil war. The US has sent in a peacekeeping force of VR-controlled humanoid automata on the side of the Chinese government. This would make for a nice novel. Kritzer writes that it's "an exploration of risk-taking in a risk-averse world".
Enjoyable

The Golem (2000)
In Prague, 1941, two women, one Jewish, create a golem in their image. The golem, who is precognizant, informs them that she cannot save all the Jewish people. She helps the Prague Resistance as a messenger while hoping for her own freedom.
Ok

Wind (2015)
A person's personality and magical ability depend on the composition of elements within their heart. Two young girls perform a self-destructive rite to gain magical abilities. Several decades later one of the women ponders her life and whether anything more can be done with her remaining time.
Meh

In The Witch’s Garden (2002)
Set in the 23rd century and inspired by The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. A made-child leaves the station and is taken by a witch, but then leaves in search of her lost friend.
Meh

What Happened At Blessing Creek (2011)
Inspired by Little House on the Prairie, though with magic, dragons, and cannibalism.
Ok

Cleanout (2015)
A slice-of-life story of siblings cleaning out their mother's house, as she's near death in the hospital. I remember thinking how strange it was that this was serialized in F&SF, since the only fantastical or speculative element is the faint implication that their parents may have been from somewhere other than Earth.
Ok

Artifice (2014)
A slice-of-life story where a group of friends who meet on game night to play board games have a new player introduced, the boyfriend of one of the regulars, only he's an AI in a human-like body because she's grown tired of real men. I want to read more slice-of-life stories like this.
Highly Enjoyable